As previously rumoured, Billie Piper will star in a new play about the press, police and political establishment at the National Theatre Lyttelton which opens next week, on 30 June 2014.

Great Britain, written by Richard Bean (One Man, Two Guvnors, Made in Dagenham), is billed as an "anarchic satire" and opens days after the culmination of the phone hacking inquiry which saw former spin doctor Andy Coulson convicted.

Nicholas Hytner will direct the play, which he describes as 'a satire on perversions of the idea of a free press, not the free press itself'. Hytner also told the press this morning that the team were 'advised' not to open the production whilst the trial was still in progress.

Hytner, who has previously collaborated with Bean on One Man, Two Guvnors and England People Very Nice, said this morning that Great Britain is "a criticism of perversions of the free press, not of the principle of a free press."

Asked whether the play took a moral stance in response to the phone hacking revelations, Bean added: "I don't think there's a moral or message as such, but there's a lot about decency."

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